


^^'^v^^ 



PROCEEDINGS 



THE DEDICATION 



THE CITY HALL, 



SEPTEMBER 18, 1865 



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BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY ORDEK OF TH 

1865. 




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PROCEEDINGS 



THE DEDICATION 



THE CITY HALL 



SETTEMBER 18, 1865, 







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BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY ORDEH OF THE CITY COUNCIL, 

I 8G5. 



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In Excli. 

Wis. Hist Soo. 



CITY OF BOSTON. 



In Common Council, Sept. 21, 1865. 
Okdered : That His Honor the Mayor be requested to 
furnish a copy of the beautiful and appropriate Address, de- 
livered by him at the Dedication of the City Hall on Monday 
last, and that the same be published in connection Avith the 
other commemorative services of that occasion. 

Passed : Sent up for concurrence. 

WM. B. FOWLE, President, 



Concurred 



In Board of Aldermen, Sept. 25, 1SG5. 
G. W. MESSINGER, Cha'mnan. 



A true copy. 
Attest : 



H. T. ROCKWELL, 

City Clerk, pro lempore. 



DEDICATION 

OF 

THE CITY HALL 



On Monday, September 18,* 1865, at 12 o'clock, M. a 
joint convention of both branches of the City Council was held 
in the Council Chamber, at the new City Hall, for the purpose 
of dedicating the building to the use of the City Government 
of Boston. Upon taking the chair, His Honor the Mayor 
stated the object of the meeting, and called upon Alderman 
Daniel Davies, the Chairman of the Committee on Public 
Buildings, who had charge of the work, to proceed in the 
discharge of his official duty. 

Alderman Davies then came forward and made the follow- 
ing remarks : — 

Mr. Mayor : It becomes my duty, as Chairman of 
the Committee on Public Buildings, to surrender to 
you, the chief executive officer of this city, this build- 
ing, which has been erected by the direction of the 
City Council for the purposes of a City Hall. 

* The seventeenth of September, tlie anniversary of the foundation of Bos- 
ton, occurred on Sunday, and the services were postponed, therefore, until the 
next day. 



6 DEDICATION OF 

On the first day of July, 1862, the orders were 
received by the Committee directing them to erect suit- 
able buildings for a City Hall. During the fall and 
winter of 1862 the contracts were made for the exca- 
vation, the stone work, masonry, and carpentry. A 
portion of the foundation being ready on the 22d day 
of December, the corner-stone was laid, which finished 
the work for that year. Early the next spring the 
work was recommenced, and it has been constantly 
prosecuted to the present time. As a full description, 
with plans of the building and grounds, the names of 
the contractors, and portions of work performed by 
each, and the expense of the work, will soon be printed 
in detail, it is unnecessary to give them at this time. 

Although considerable work yet remains to be done, 
it was thought best by the Committee that the building 
should be formally dedicated on this day, — the anni- 
versary of the foundation of the town of Boston. 

And now, Mr. Mayor, under the direction and in 
behalf of the Committee on Public Buildings, I sur- 
render to your charge this building, and deliver to 
you this key, which controls its entrance. 

To these remarks the Mayor responded as follows : — 

Mr. Chairman : As the representative of the Exec- 
utive Government of Boston, it is my duty, as well as 
my privilege, to receive from your hands this key, as a 



THE CITY HALL. 1 

formal delivery of this beautiful edifice. The peculiar 
felicity of the Committee on Public Buildings is, that 
their work appears in a tangible form ; it is not placed 
upon file, or bound up with the City X)ocuments, but 
appears in our public streets, and, while ministering to 
the wants of the people, gratifies the taste and embel- 
lishes and ornaments the city. The degree of opulence 
and wealth which a community has attained is indi- 
cated by the character of its public buildings ; and 
although the useful purposes to which they are de- 
voted are of more vital consequence than their mere 
form, yet the harmonious combination of the practical 
with the beautiful carries with it a higher illustration 
of the culture and refinement of the people. It lias 
been your privilege, together with that of your associ- 
ates, in addition to the usual work committed to your 
charge, — such as the building of public stables and 
engine houses, police stations, hospitals, and school- 
houses, — to be called upon to superintend the erection 
of this crowning glory of municipal architecture, — an 
edifice wisely adapted to the official and business pur- 
poses of the government, and also an expressive and 
imposing structure, typifying by its costly and elaborate 
embellishments the dignity and relative rank of our 
city. It is a subject of just pride to our citizens that 
within a few years there has been a marked change in 
the outward appearance and style of all classes of our 



S DEDICATION OF 

buildings. The stranger, who from time to time visits 
our metropolis, must be impressed with the architectu- 
ral progress which has been made in the character of 
our private dwellings, as well as those devoted to 
science and art and to the worship of Almighty God. 

While public-spirited individuals have united their 
means for the erection of many elegant structures 
appropriated to the institutions which bless our people, 
the city itself, through its municipal authorities, has 
not been negligent of its duty in this respect. 

AVhatever difference of opinion may have existed as 
to the expediency of erecting a new City Hall at a 
time when the dark cloud of civil war was hanging 
over the country, yet its completion is celebrated when 
the bright beams of peace are cheering the hearts of 
the people. As the work on the magnificent Capitol 
at Washington, in which the National Council holds 
its session, still resolutely went on during the dark 
period, so w^e, with an unfaltering faith in the success 
of the country's cause, abated not one jot or tittle in 
our original design. The inflation of the currency and 
other circumstances may have swelled the figures on 
our Treasurer's books ; but we believe we have pre- 
sented to our constituents a building worth all it has 
cost. 

For the patient assiduity and skilful manner in 
which you, Mr. Chairman, and your associates of the 



THE CITY HALL. 9 

Committee, have discharged the special duties incum 
bent on your official position, I have no doubt you will 
receive the thanks of our citizens. This building will 
long remain a memorial of your devotion to the public 
service, and a monument to the taste of the architects 
who designed, and the faithful Boston mechanics who 
have been engaged in its erection. 

As the organ of the City Government I cheerfully 
receive it from your hands, with sincere congratulations 
on the near approach of the consummation of your 
labors in its behalf. 

Rev. Chandler Robbins, D. D., pastor of the Second Church, 
offered the following prayer : — 

Almighty and most merciful God, our Father which 
art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name ! We would 
come together for the first time into these goodly halls 
with devout acknowledgments of Thy glory and Thy 
goodness, and of our dependence and obligations. 

We adore Thee as the Architect and Owner of the 
heavens, and the earth, and all things which they con- 
tain. Remembering that " except the Lord build the 
house, they labor in vain that build it," we would 
thank Thee that Thy Providence has worked together 
with those whose skill and strength have reared this 
edifice ; that while stone has been laid upon stone and 
beam upon beam, no hostile power has marred the 



10 DEDICATION OF 

work or destroyed the workmen. We thank Thee that 
by Thy favor it stands complete, and that the various 
officers of our municipal government are permitted, 
under such auspicious circumstances, to take possession 
of its ample and commodious apartments and to dedi- 
cate them to their public uses. May they come into 
its unpolluted walls with clean hands and pure hearts, 
with new purposes of fidelity, and new interest in all 
that concerns the welfare of our city and its inhabit- 
ants. 

We thank Thee for all the historic recollections, 
both of civic and national interest, which this occasion 
revives. We thank Thee that Thou didst lead our pil- 
grim ancestors across the ocean, and guard and guide 
them, while with toils and prayers they laid the founda- 
tion of this city, and of a new empire in the west. We 
thank Thee for their faith and their piety, their patience 
and their trust, their love of liberty and respect for 
law, their fidelity to conscience, their political wisdom 
and their practical energy, for all those qualities which 
fitted them for the successful performance of the work 
which Thy Providence laid upon them, and the fruits 
of which we are this day enjoying. We thank Thee 
for all and each of those wise and faithful men, in the 
long line of their successors, who, in their respective 
generations, have contributed in any way to promote the 
true prosperity and estabUsh the fair fame of Boston. 



THE CITY HALL. 11 

The whole history of our city is one continued record 
of Thy favors. May we not be ungrateful. May we 
not be unworthy of such a past. May we not be for- 
getful of the hand that has built us up and the mercy 
that has blessed us. Let us emulate the virtues and 
public spirit of our fathers, and not through pride and 
impiety fall away from honoring and serving our 
fathers' God. 

As our thoughts revert on this anniversary to the 
adoption of that Constitution which formed the basis 
of our national union, we would with one accord oifer 
our thanksgivings and supplications in behalf of our 
country. We would remember with gratitude how 
Thou didst watch over the infant Republic, and protect 
it from foreign enemies ; how Thou didst enlarge its 
borders and increase its greatness ; how Thou didst 
nourish and defend it till it took its place among the 
leading nations of the earth ; and when in these latter 
years intestine discord threatened its destruction, how 
Thy Right Hand and Thine Arm saved and delivered us. 
We thank Thee, O gracious Lord, that Thou hast 
brought us out of all the horrors and miseries of a frat- 
ricidal war, and art cheering and comforting us with 
the blessings of reviving peace. O grant, we beseech 
Thee, that it may be a righteous and permanent peace. 
As we lay aside the weapons of warfare, dispose and 
help us to put away from us forever those lusts and 



12 DEDICATION OF 

iniquities which were the cause of the war, and which 
would be a perpetual source of future discord and 
calamity. Taught by the bitter discipline through 
which we have passed, may we become a wise, just, 
and Christian people. 

Bless, we entreat Thee, the President of the United 
States. Enlighten his mind, that he may discern what 
is for the true interest of the Eepublic. Enlarge and 
purify his heart, that he may be both liberal and just. 
Strengthen his hands, that he may firmly execute the 
laws and vigorously carry into eJffect wise and equitable 
measures for the reconciliation and reconstruction of 
our disordered nation. Endue the members of his 
Cabinet, and all who are connected with the adminis- 
tration of the National Government with understanding 
and virtue. Discarding selfish ambition and party pre- 
judice, may they work together faithfully and success- 
fully, with one mind, and in the fear of God, for their 
country's good. 

And now, O God, we would humbly and fervently 
commend to Thy continued protection and favor our 
beloved city ; its Chief Magistrate, and all the members 
of its government, and all who are associated with its 
service ; its institutions of learning, science, charity, 
justice, and religion ; the interests of its trade, commerce 
and industry, and all the instruments and elements of 
its prosperity. Save it from those things which divide, 



THE CITY HALL. 13 

corrupt, and disgrace a people ; save it from luxury, 
intemperance, faction, infidelity, and every form of 
vice and ungodliness. May it be the home of order, 
concord, health, intelligence, and humanity ; of all the 
virtues Avhich ennoble, the arts which adorn and refine, 
and the Christian faith and piety which exalt a city. 

Let this edifice, dedicated and set apart to municipal 
services and duties, be a centre of good and salutary 
influences. Here may men of integrity, discretion, 
and practical ability, consult harmoniously, legislate 
wisely, and act impartially, for the public good. May 
it stand for many years a tower of defence as well as an 
ornament. As it shall become venerable from age, 
may it become more and more venerable from associa- 
tion with the worthy names and faithful services of 
those who shall have occupied it. And, long after its 
walls shall have crumbled, may the spot on which it 
stands be surrounded by the abodes of a prosperous 
and Christian people. 

O, God, in Thy great mercy, accept these our 
thanksgivings and prayers, forgive and cleanse us from 
our sins, and help us to live to Thy glory. May all the 
kingdoms and inhabitants of the world be blessed with 
the knowledge of Thy truth and the experience of Thy 
saving health. Give to Thy dear son Jesus Christ, our 
Lord, the sceptre of the nations, that he may reign 
over them in righteousness and peace. In him may 



14 DEDICATION OF THE CITY HALL. 

our prayers be heard, our offerings be accepted and 
our works blessed, and through him we will render 
unto Thee all praise and glory forever. Amen. 

The Mayor then delivered the following address : 



ADDRESS. 



ADDRESS 



OF THE MAYOU, 



FREDEPvIC W. LIXCOL^^ JR. 



Gentlemen of the City Council, and Fellow Citi- 
zens : We are assembled on an occasion which will 
hereafter mark an important era in the municipal his- 
tory of Boston. We have met this day to dedicate, 
with appropriate ceremonies, a new building to be de- 
voted to the local administration of the affairs of this 
city. On this two hundred and thirty-fifth anniversary 
of its civic birth, our minds are naturally and fondly 
carried back through the stirring events of these many 
years. The long procession of noble men, who have 
given it a name and character, again pass on the stage 
before us. We watch with intense interest the move- 
ments of the fathers of the town, who, self-exiled from 
the land of their birth and the sepulchres of their 
ancestors, landed upon these shores, and, building a 
home for themselves and their Uttle ones, laid the 



18 ADDRESS. 

foundations of a city ^vhich should be known and 
honored through many generations. We would bow 
in reverence to the motives which led them to form 
this infant settlement. They were not mere adventu- 
rers, — the cast-off mendicants from the Old World ; 
many of them were men of culture and education ; 
some Avith a fair share of worldly goods, all of an incor- 
ruptible integrity ; yet they left the conveniences and 
comforts of their native land to found, upon the barren 
strand of a New World, a state where the privileges of 
civil and religious liberty, of which they had been de- 
prived by arbitrary power, might be enjoyed by them- 
selves and their posterity. The success which crowned 
their efforts is illustrated in every page of our annals, 
and is to be seen in our present condition and prosper- 
ity. Boston, the capital of Massachusetts Bay, through 
all its colonial and provincial existence, affords one of 
the best examples of the steady development and pro- 
gress of civil freedom, culminating in the revolutionary 
era, when the sister colonies, espousing her cause, 
united in the Declaration of Independence, thus 
estabhshing the Republic of the United States, and 
introducing a new people into the family of nations. 

Our local history commences with September sev- 
enth, old style, or September seventeenth, new style, 
1630, when the Court of Assistants of Massachusetts 
Bay, then sitting at Charlestowu, acting under a char- 



ADDRESS. ^^ 



ter granted by Charles the First, ordered that this penin- 
sula, which had heretofore been called Shawmut and 
Trimountain, should take the name of Boston. Such 
were the peculiar associations connected with Boston 
in England, that the leaders in the enterprise had re- 
solved, previous to embarking from their homes, that 
the chief town should be called by this name. Boston 
had been famous in the annals of the persecuted Puri- 
tans ; a large portion of the company belonged to that 
city and the county of Lincoln, in which it is situ- 
ated ; and it is said that the name was also considered 
as a' compliment to the Rev. John Cotton, a distin- 
guished clergyman of that place, who united his fame 
and fortune with them, and afterwards became the pas- 
tor of the First Church in the new settlement. 

It was thus early decided, on account of its natural ad- 
vantages, to be the capital of the colony. There were 
other places which had been settled previously, which 
had a claim to the distinction, such as Salem, Dorchester, 
Charlestown, and Cambridge, but its rapid growth and 
prosperity soon justified the wisdom of the selection. It 
was designed for a commercial town, was limited in ex- 
tent, and was sometimes designated " Blackstone's Neck," 
after the first settler. Its greatest wants were wood and 
meadow land, so that those of the people " who lived 
upon their cattle" took farms in the adjoining country, 
which were granted to them for the purpose. It was 



20 ADDRESS. 

feared by many that it would be no place for continued 
habitation, for want of a staple commodity ; but, as early 
as 1647, her interests had become diversified; she not 
only raised from the earth and the sea enough for all 
her inhabitants, but had a large commerce with Virginia, 
Barbadoes, and the Summer Islands ; with France, 
Spain, Portugal, and Holland, and even with England. 

Johnson says, in speaking of the colony of Massachu- 
setts Bay, that " the maritime towns began to increase 
roundly, especially Boston, the wh-ich of a poor coun- 
try village in twice seven years it became like unto a 
small city, and is in election to be Mayor Town sudden- 
ly, chiefly increased by trade by sea." He also says, at 
an earlier date, that " it is the centre town and the 
metropolis of this wilderness work, and its continual 
enlargement presages some sumptuous city." 

There is no clear account of the commencement of 
our municipal government. The records in the posses- 
sion of our City Clerk do not give any light on the 
subject. The affairs of the colony and the town were 
so connected, as it was the seat of government, that 
probably at first the Governor and Assistants, the ma- 
jority being inhabitants of the town, exercised all the 
powers that were necessary. Sometimes there appear 
upon the records " Overseers of the Town's Concerns," 
or " persons chosen for the occasion of the town." But 
in 1645 a regular Board of Selectmen was chosen, John 



ADDRESS. 21 

Winthrop, that year acting as Deputy Governor of the 
Colony, being Chairman, and James Penn, one of their 
number, Recorder and Treasurer. As the town in- 
creased in population, and wealth, frequent attempts 
were made by a portion of the inhabitants to secure for 
it the name and privileges of a city. As early as 1651 
the subject was agitated; again in 1708, in 1762, in 
1784, in 1815, and finally with success in 1822. The 
whole number of votes cast was four thousand eight 
hundred and eleven ; the number in favor of the 
City Government was two thousand eight hundred and 
five ; the number against the project was two thousand 
and six. A charter was obtained from the Legislature, 
which received the signature of Governor Brooks, Feb- 
ruary 23, 1822, and was accepted by the people on the 
following fourth of March. The new government was 
organized at Faneuil Hall on the first of May, the Chair- 
man of the Selectmen, Eliphalet Williams, in an appro- 
priate speech, transferring the powers of the old town 
organization to the Mayor, John Phillips, who delivered 
an inaugural address, — the oath of office being admin- 
istered by Chief Justice Parker, and a prayer off"ered by 
the Hev. Dr. Baldwin, the senior clergyman of the town. 
No single thing afi'ords a better illustration of the 
character of the people of Boston than their long con- 
tinued love for a democratic form of municipal organi- 
zation. It was only when the population became so 



22 ADDRESS. 

large that their interests suffered materially by the old 
customs, that they would consent to delegate the powers 
of the local government to a limited number of their 
town fellow-citizens. A watchful and jealous scrutiny 
of the conduct of their official servants is still a marked 
characteristic of Boston, and woe will befall our city 
when the great body of her citizens cease to take an 
interest in her public affairs. 

You will not expect me, gentlemen, on an occasion 
like the present, to deliver an historical discourse upon 
so inspiring a theme as the annals of Boston, tempting 
though it be. I have alluded to the commencement of 
our town, because the associations connected with this 
anniversary required it, and in order that we may be 
reminded of the days of small things, and of the great 
contrast between the distant past, and the present of 
which we form a part. To the student of history, I 
verily believe there is no more interesting study to be 
found, than the record of the events which have made 
Boston what she is to-day. He will find that she has 
had a healthy and well-developed progress in every- 
thing which promotes the welfare of civilized man, — 
the cause of religion and morals, education and science, 
commerce and industry, good order and social happi- 
ness. While the machinery of town government, 
based upon the example of the mother country, was 
followed so far as it suited her condition, yet better 



ADDRESS. 23 

methods and additional institutions were organized, 
more wisely adapted to the character and prospective 
wants of the people. 

The stirring events which made her name famous in 
the revolutionary era has somewhat overshadowed her 
earlier history ; but I contend her career has been bril- 
liant from the first ; and her intrepid stand against the 
encroachments of arbitrary power at that time, was but 
the natural consequence of that education and disci- 
pline which her people had been receiving for a century 
and a half in the defence of their colonial and provin- 
cial rights. There is not a more pregnant page in the 
records of the progress of mankind towards civil liberty 
than the part which our town took in that long 
struggle, in which she was finally defeated, when the 
original charter of Massachusetts Bay was taken from 
the colony, and it became a province of the King. 
Then commenced a new era in her history, apparently 
dark, but gradually lighting up as she successively 
combated and defied the several British governors, 
who, representing the prerogatives of the Crown, 
claimed her slavish allegiance, until she had the hap- 
piness of seeing the last of the loyal line forced to take 
his departure from the town, and sail down the waters 
of our beautiful bay with his mercenary troops, never 
more to return. The events of the revolutionary pe- 
riod are as familiar to us as " household words." As 



24 ADDRESS. 

Boston was the theatre where its great principles were 
earliest discussed and promulgated, so was its vicinity 
the scene of some of its most important engagements 
when an appeal was made to arms. The long struggle 
on other fields, and in different parts of the country, 
she sustained with men and means in a cheerful spirit ; 
and when peace came, her people, and especially her 
mechanics, spoke with a resolution which could not be 
resisted, in behalf of the adoption of the Federal Con- 
stitution, which was the glorious consummation of the 
patriot's prayers and the bright herald of the nation's 
prosperity. At the advent of the new government 
under Washington, the country, saved by the valor of 
her sons, and the Union, consolidated by the provisions 
of this immortal instrument, Boston again started on 
her onward course. Her representatives took a leading 
part in the National Councils, while her citizens at 
home embarked in new enterprises for the develop- 
ment of the commercial and industrial resources of the 
country. The keels of her merchant ships vexed the 
seas of every continent. Her capitalists made the 
streams of New England, as they descended to the 
ocean, work their passage as manufactories were 
planted on their murmuring courses. Her mechanics 
and artisans, invigorated by the new motives to labor 
which independence had secured, added new wealth to 
the community ; and her professional men of every class 



ADDRESS. 25 

gave a fresh lustre to science, and dedicated their learn- 
ing to the advancement and elevation of mankind. In 
the history of the last half century, she has been in 
unison with the rapid progress and marvellous success 
of our common country. Her wealth and population 
have increased with a healthy and steady growth. 
Often reproached as the representative of ideas in ad- 
vance of the public sentiment of the whole Union, she 
to-day is honored as never before for her unflinching 
adherence to principle, and the Republic itself will not 
part wdth her fame or the renown of her great men so 
long as it holds a place in the front rank of the consti- 
tutional governments of the world. 

I must confess to you that, in the preparation for 
this occasion, among the multitude of subjects, I have 
found it difficult to so order my thoughts as to select 
the appropriate topics for consideration. The primary 
cause which led our ancestors to this place was 
religion ; and it would be an interesting field of survey 
to trace the progress of religious thought and theo- 
logical inquiry, — to see how, with the advance of 
years, the tenets of the older sects were liberalized 
and new churches planted and prospered, so that now, 
living in harmony, we have the representatives of all 
the denominations into which the Christian world is 
divided. Education was the stone upon which our 
fathers laid the foundation of their superstructure ; 

4 



26 ADDRESS. 

and this interest has been so prominent through our 
history, that the modern friends of free schools have 
sometimes considered it our special token of regard, 
and other communities have gladly followed in the 
intellectual paths which we have marked out for 
ourselves. I believe it is generally acknowledged, that 
there is no large city in the world where the people of 
every class are so w^ell versed in the common rudi- 
ments of knowledge ; and certainly there is none in 
comparison with the population where there are so 
many institutions devoted to the higher branches of 
scientific investigation, and to the encouragement of 
eleo:ant literature and the fine arts. Institutions for 
charitable and philanthropic purposes have always 
been fostered, keeping pace with human wants and 
needs, so that hardly an " ill which flesh is heir to" is 
left neglected in the circle of our ministering agencies. 
The glorious success of our national arms in crush- 
ing the late Rebellion and extirpating that foul blot on 
the nation's character, which has so long been our 
reproach, will have an important effect on our commer- 
cial and industrial relations. Channels of business 
heretofore obstructed, or undeveloped, will soon open 
to the spirit of adventure or enterprise. Holding fast 
on those methods and objects of traffic which have been 
a source of her worldly success, Boston is destined to 
expand still more in this direction ; and that prosperity 



ADDRESS. 27 

which is based upon a mutual interchange of the 
commodities of the earth with the handicraft of man, 
can be anticipated for our city with the Hveliest 
feelings of hope and cheer. A modern teacher of 
political economy has a maxim, that, " to increase the 
wealth of a people, you add to their power to bless the 
w^orld." We, therefore, may rejoice from the highest 
motives, at all the signs of an affluent city which 
appear, if we constantly bear in mind that our duties 
correspond with the privileges we enjoy. 

Another class of subjects pertinent to the occasion, 
if time would permit, would be a consideration of the 
various interests directly connected with the special 
prerogatives and duties of a municipal government. 
The topographical changes which have taken place in 
the town since its settlement, have been as marked as 
any in its history. Commencing on a peninsula of 
about seven hundred acres, with its additional territory, 
mostly reclaimed from the sea, it is now not far from 
sixteen hundred acres ; while East Boston and South 
Boston, now single wards, have each an extent of 
surface suitable for habitations and business purposes 
larger than the original town. Some of the prominent 
hills in the City proper have been levelled, and its 
creeks have been filled up. Many of its ancient 
streets, following the line of the shore, or creeping at 
the base of its original heights, or suiting themselves 



28 ADDRESS. 

to the diversities of the surface of the soil, have been 
straightened and widened ; and this is a work which 
must go on, to meet the new exigencies of a teeming 
and thriving population, — a prolific source of official 
business, and involving a large expenditure of the 
public money. Our harbor, naturally one of the most 
magnificent in the world, whose spacious and conven- 
ient waters were the very cause of the location of the 
town, has, through the ravages of the sea, been 
seriously impaired, and deserves the most careful 
management, especially in those schemes for the city's 
enlargement, which an increasing commerce may re- 
quire. When we consider the millions of people who 
are in the future to inhabit this continent, and are to 
form this energetic and busy nation, and recollect that 
the good harbors on the Atlantic coast, which connect 
us with the old world, can be counted on one's fingers, 
while this geographical fact presages that Boston will 
always hold an important commercial position, yet it 
gives a new significance to this interest so vital to its 
prosperity. 

The sanitary condition of our city, always a matter 
of concern with our ancestors, as is seen in their early 
appointment of a board of health, becomes more and 
more a subject of municipal care as population in- 
creases. The liberal supply and proper distribution of 
water, the fire department, which protects our dwellings 



ADDRESS. 29 

and warehouses from the devouring element, the police, 
who shield us from the designs and acts of wicked 
men, the institutions where the vicious are incar- 
cerated, or the unfortunate or the insane find their 
homes, the finances of the city, the construction of 
sewers, the paving and lighting of streets, the markets, 
cemeteries, hospitals, public library and schools, all 
these and kindred subjects afford themes of thought 
and comment, and are naturally forced upon our 
attention, as we sit together for the first time in a new 
building to be devoted to their management. But 
your patience would weary, and my strength would fail, 
in the attempt to give them that elaborate consideration 
which their merits demand. 

As has already been stated, the first city government 
of Boston was inaugurated in 1822, at Faneuil Hall. 
Some of the municipal offices remained in that ancient 
edifice a number of years ; others were located in what 
was then called the County Court House, the building 
formerly on this spot, in which the meetings of the 
Common Council were held. On the two-hundredth 
anniversary of the settlement of the town, September 
17, 1830, the old State House having been remodelled 
for the purpose, the different branches of the govern- 
ment, which had previously been in separate buildings, 
took possession of it, and an address was delivered by 
the Mayor, Harrison Gray Otis. On the same day 



30 ADDRESS. 

appropriate commemorative services, of a popular 
character, took place at the Old South Church, an 
address being delivered by Josiah Quincy, the second 
Mayor of Boston, and a poem by Charles Sprague. 
The city government remained in the old State House 
about ten years, when another change took place, and 
it removed back to this spot, bringing with it other 
additional departments of the public service. The 
edifice was formally dedicated as a City Hall, March 
18, 1841, by an address from Jonathan Chapman, then 
Mayor of the city. The corner-stone of the edifice in 
which we are now assembled was laid December 22, 
1862, — the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims 
at Plymouth, — with appropriate Masonic services and 
an address by the Mayor, Joseph M. Wightman. This 
is the first building, therefore, which has been built 
and specially designed for municipal purposes ; and 
the present government will have the satisfaction, 
before their term of office has expired, to see its 
administrative offices suitably established, with the 
best facilities for the accommodation of our citizens 
and the despatch of public business. We have no 
inspiring historical associations connected with this 
edifice, as had our predecessors, who occupied Faneuil 
Hall and the old State House ; but the vicinity reminds 
us of the early past, as we look into the ancient burial- 
ground by our side, and recollect that Johnson and 



ADDRESS. 



31 



Winthrop, the fathers of the town, have, for upwards 
of two centuries, been sleeping within its sacred 
enclosure ; and that not far distant rest the bones of 
Hancock and Adams, and other patriots of another 
historical period. Nor can we forget that, on the very 
spot where the statue of Frankhn is located before 
our windows, he played as a Boston schoolboy ; and 
that within a stone's throw still stands the Old South 
Church, so redolent with the patriotic memories of 

other days. 

We, and our successors in office, are to give this 
new building a name and character. May its sym- 
metry and beautiful proportions be emblematical of the 
purity of life and elevated principles of those who 
shall occupy these seats, fill the several departments of 
public service, and manage the municipal affairs of this 
city! The past is secure. The general character of 
our government from the first has been a fitting repre- 
sentative of the reputation of our people. Few names 
upon our Municipal Register we could wish blotted 
from the roll ; for no city has been more favored with 
faithful and devoted public servants. The most afflu- 
ent in fortune, the highest in social position and 
culture, have deemed it an honor to participate in the 
conduct of our civic affairs, and citizens who had dis- 
tinguished themselves in some of the most exalted 
national positions, have put on again the badge of 



32 ADDRESS. 

office, and devoted their time and talents for the pro- 
motion of the city's welfare. We have seen in other 
large municipalities, paradoxical as it may appear, that 
those citizens who have the most at stake, and whose 
fortunes and happiness are dependent in a great mea- 
sure upon good government, are the very ones who 
take the least interest in their local affairs, and those 
who would have exerted the best influence, on account 
of their intellectual gifts or moral character, shrink, as 
from pollution, from the discharge of those duties 
which they cannot neglect without detriment to the 
public weal. A municipality is formed to organize 
order, to afford protection to persons and property, and 
to secure the blessings of peace and prosperity to a 
community. These can only be accomplished by the 
active and zealous interest of the best men. They 
should occasionally take office themselves, when their 
services are needed ; and they should always watch 
with a jealous care the tendencies of public measures 
and the motives of those who originate them. If 
Boston has acquired any reputation in the conduct of 
her internal affairs, it is because her people have so 
distinguished themselves in these matters ; and when 
it shall be otherwise, her glory will have departed, and 
she should give up the right of self-government, for 
she will no longer deserve the privilege. The pride 
which a Bostonian feels in his city, whether he was 



ADDRESS. 33 

born within its limits or has made it his home by 
adoption, is justified by its past history, its actual 
condition, and its future prospects. Our business men 
are not, as in some other localities, mere seekers of 
fortune, temporary sojourners until that object is 
accomplished, but they are a part of the living com- 
munity, identified with all its concerns, and looking 
forward to spending the evening of their days within 
its precincts, or within the influence of its cherished 
associations. Hence a public spirit is fostered, which 
pervades every class and condition, which interests 
itself in every cause which will add to the good name 
and fame of the city, and which in the affluent is so 
often illustrated m the liberal endowments of our 
literary and charitable institutions. 

In ancient times cities were established, under a dif- 
ferent form of civilization, for mutual protection of the 
people, and were surrounded with walls and fortifica- 
tions as a defence against a common enemy. Now, 
business is their mother, and while it is the chief inter- 
est and the greatest element in their outward growth, 
they become the great centres of mischief unless there 
is in the inhabitants a love of religion and virtue, and 
a taste for those objects of nature and art which 
ennoble the mind and refine the character. I do not 
believe, with Jefferson, that "great cities are great 
sores," for I hold that municipalities were the first to 



34 ADDRESS. 

be identified with tlie cause of popular liberty ; but we 
may accept the remark as a warning, and endeavor to 
make our city the great fountain from which shall 
spread those influences which shall be for the healing 
of the nation. 

In addition to the local associations connected with 
this day, it is well to remember that it is also the anni- 
versary of the adoption of the Constitution of the 
United States. Sharing with the whole country in the 
blessings of the Union, no city has been more loyal 
than Boston, or has exhibited better proofs of its de- 
votion to the National Government. The late infamous 
attempt to destroy the integrity of the Ilepublic at once 
aroused her patriotism, and she proved, through the 
long and protracted struggle, that the fires of liberty, 
kindled by the fathers, were still burning on her altars. 
Her sons went forth to the field of battle, or stood upon 
the decks of our naval ships, taking their lives in their 
hands for the common defence, while her daughters 
lent their ministering aid by the bedsides of the 
wounded and dying in the hospitals, or, remaining at 
home, comforted and cheered the absent by their 
timely contributions to their pressing needs. The old 
flag, whose beautiful colors have always mingled 
gracefully with the atmosphere which surrounds our 
habitations, now floats over a reunited country. 
Streaming in the free air as the representative of noble 



ADDRESS. 35 

ideas and a great nationality, the best interests of hu- 
manity fostered and protected under its ample folds, 
its honor an absorbing passion, the people of Boston 
will be the last to submit to its humiliation, and with a 
resolute spirit will defend its fair fame, whether assail- 
ed by domestic traitors or foreign foes. 

To-day, then, gentlemen of the City Council, on this 
double anniversary, with the associations connected 
with the memory of the ancestors who laid the foun- 
dations of this city, and the statesmen who framed the 
Federal compact which gave constitutional life to a 
nation, we appropriately dedicate an edifice for the 
home of municipal legislation. Its deliberative halls 
may never echo with the sublime eloquence which stirs 
the hearts of the people in senatorial chambers, or in- 
flames their passions in the popular assemblies ; the 
subjects of discussion may be prosaic, but their results 
will affect the happiness and comfort of many homes. 
We would dedicate these walls to the cause of good 
order and good government ; to a watchful care of the 
morals of the community ; to a zealous stewardship of 
all its public interests ! Let the narrow spirit of party 
and partisanship stop at the threshold and seek other 
theatres for the display of their intrigues ! Let official 
power be considered a sacred trust to be exercised by 
the most worthy citizens, — the possessor himself the 
bright exemplar and representative of the highest 



36 ADDRESS. 

standard of public virtue ! Let wholesome laws and 
wise ordinances advance the material prosperity of our 
beloved city, and the personal welfare of all its inhab- 
itants ! And with a filial obedience to the commands 
of the Great Euler of the Universe, in whose hands 
are the destinies of communities as well as individuals, 
may the prayer of the people be ever that on the city 
seal : — 

" Sicut patrihus sit Deus nobis."' 

As God was with our Fathers, so may He be with us. 



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